RiverWinds Gallery at 172 Main Street, Beacon, NY is presenting ““iEurope: Strange Beauties,” photos by Mary Ann Glass and Galina Krasskova. After attending an International Artists’ Residency in Poland this summer, the two artists made a point to visit Baroque churches, pilgrimage sites, and ossuaries, i.e., bone chapels, in not only Poland but also the Czech Republic and Cologne, Germany. It's been noted: “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there" -- this show highlights the truth of this. The Artists' Opening is January 9, from 5-8 pm. The show runs through February 7, 2016.

"I cannot walk into one without desperately wanting to take photographs," says Ms. Glass. "This summer, as a professional photographer, I did take a real camera with me: you know, one that doesn’t take phone calls or track the number of steps I walk per day. But I didn't use it. The tiny iPhone, packed with marvelous, wonderful, powerful apps, gave me all the tools I needed to record and describe my experience."

“There is beauty in bone, in the starkness and purity of its line" says Galina Krasskova. "There is a truth there that bridges the centuries and connects us to all that have come before. I tap into that whenever I walk into an ossuary or bone chapel. I tap into generations of reverence and devotion, of longing and passion poured out with the names of Gods on one's lips whenever my eyes touch relics and the bodies of saints. As a painter and photographer I understand that longing.

"Moreover," Ms. Krasskova continues," my adopted mother was Swiss and I spent formative years visiting many a Baroque Church, many a shrine, many a place of Pagan worship too. I learned very early on how the beauty and wonder enshrined in these places can nourish the soul."